So it’s been many years since I tinkered with PCs – I think the last one was a 486!

The shop PC, a reasonably powerful tower that I swapped a customer for a Brompton, has gone on the blink. For a couple of days it was freezing randomly, then coming back to life, but now it won’t turn on at all – no lights, no boot-up, nothing apart from a whine from the power supply (though it did that before).

Would I be way off in thinking it’s probably the power supply? The PS seems to do something – a red LED on the motherboard lights, and it powers USB ports – but no fans start up. Or is it more likely a dodgy motherboard?

Cheers 😉

Just swap the PSU out – we’re likely stabbing wildly in the dark here and may injure ourselves in the process.

PSU or motherboard are both likely candidates. Only way to tell would be to replace one or plug a tester into the PSU. Could be worth disconnecting non-essential devices (hard disk, optical drive) to see if it can power up with a lower drain, but it’s a long shot.

If I were a betting man, based solely on the description of the symptoms I’d say motherboard. But that’s an educated guess at best. Cast an eye over the capacitors, see if any are domed or split (google ‘capacitor plague’)?

Thanks both of you – I took the power supply along to a friendly local computer shop, where he plugged in a test device, pronounced it dead, and sold me a fancy new power supply for £21.

I’m never going to moan about margins in the bike trade again, his profits must be razor-thin.

£21 o.O – eer what brand?

Ace. It’s got a red fan 😉

[EDIT] Didn’t read thread properly As it is not posting from the sounds of it then I would say mobo or PSU.

Anyone know where to buy an Intel i5 1156 processor at reasonable price?

ebay

or

New but expensive and not an i5. So – no.

gofasterstripes – Member

ebay

or

New but expensive and not an i5. So – no.

My mobo says it’s for i5 & i7 1156 processor so does that mean Intel Pentium G6950 Dual Core 2.80GHz 3Mb Cache Socket LGA1156 Retail will fit?

arrgghh … might just need to get one off ebay.

What will you be doing on the computer?

fr0sty125 – Member

What will you be doing on the computer?

1. Web surfing,
2. Email,
3. Youtube,
4. TV channel (got the tv card),
5. Microsoft Office with large Excel number crunching,
6. Testing out database software (crossed between Access & Excel) created by my colleague.

🙂

I think it will fit/work, it’s just lower spec than an i5. Should be fine though, if the rest of the machine isn’t crap. Do a wipe and clean install of Windoze to remove bloat. Be aware you may need to phone microsoft and explain what you’ve done if you just swap the CPU in a working machine, especially if you’ve changed other hardware.

Download the manual for your mobo and see if it’s listed as compatible – there’s usually a more detailed section on that.

Well considering it is’s an almost 4 year old socket if it was me then I would avoid the dual core small cache Clarkedale CPUs and instead looking for the bigger cache quad core Lynfield ones which I believe i5-7xx models and i7-8xx models. But it depends how long you want it to last and how much you want to spend because even though they are 4 years old the i5 and i7 will still be expensive, you could stick a dual core and it would do for a couple of years.

Sound advice – how much does he have to spend though?

I have all the spare components apart from the case (thinking of getting Aerocool Qs-200 Lite Midi Tower Case £35), processor and monitor.

I am willing to spend around £75 for an i5-750 but the cheaper the better so long as it works.

Initially it was meant to be on i5-750 Lynfield 1156 but I changed the mobo when I thought the mobo was damaged but then later I found out that it was just software conflict. d’Oh!

Now I want to build a spare system to back up my current pc.

🙂

You got the right heatsink?

gofasterstripes – Member

You got the right heatsink?

Yes. Probably water cool it with refurbish Corsair H60/H80 whichever is cheaper.

Oh ya … I have spare Intel 80GB SSD that I will reformat to use as the OS drive.

🙂

OK. You have an specific overclock in mind?

EDIT: Ah, yes. I have the 1366 version – just hits 4GHz. Freaking hot though – up to 88C in Prime 95 😯

gofasterstripes – Member

OK. You have an specific overclock in mind?

I might but I doubt it. Just fancy some water cool if the parts are cheap …

My current PC does not hit more than 50C (Corsair H50 Watercool) fully loaded doing all these: web surfing, youtube, Excel, Words, playing Solitaire (still can’t get my score beyond 20%) …

Ultimately less reliable tho’.

What speed is that set to?

gofasterstripes – Member

Ultimately less reliable tho’.

Yes, overclocking might cause BSOD if not careful so I will see how it goes otherwise just standard but hopefully fast.

The software conflict which has cost me was the result of MSE conflicting with MBAM pro with real-time protection.

On my PC now I have MSE but on-demand with MBAM and since then Event Viewer only show one error related to MSE everytime I boot up. According to Microsoft that MSE error is not fatal so should leave it alone … hmmmm …

🙂

p/s: Cougar, do you have any Intel i5 1156 spare chip set for sale?

OK. Keep me up to date 🙂

Ace. It’s got a red fan

FWIW I work in IT distribution. We sell a 550W Ace for £ 9.90 Ex.VAT as an expensive price. Expect 90p off for quantity maybe.

So margins aren’t too tight on that product, but that’s a low value item. If you spent £150 quid on a Corsair PSU he would make the same £10.

gofasterstripes – Member

OK. Keep me up to date

Will do. If you have any i5-750 Lynfield 1156 spare let me know if you want to sell it.

😀